Month: April 2018

DemandJump, a customer acquisition platform, has completed a $6 million Series A financing round. The capital was funded by a group investors including Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Flyover Capital, Cultivation Capital, 4G Ventures, Bob Davoli and Hyde Park Venture Partners.

The marketing platform plans to use the capital on sales, marketing and product innovation expansion.

Shoppers are looking beyond cost when making e-Commerce purchasing decisions, according to the 2018 Consumer Trends Report from Kibo. While price is still the most important factor for 61% of shoppers, its share has fallen from 70% in 2017. At the same time, a small but growing portion of shoppers rate other factors as more important:

Speed of fulfillment (8%, up from 2%);

Online shopping experience: (8%, up from 4%); and

Variety of fulfillment options: (7%, up from 4%).

Flexibility and speed are particularly important purchase influencers: 40% of shoppers say taking more than two days for delivery would prevent them from making a purchase, while 63% expect delivery within three days as the standard. Making a variety of delivery options visible early in the shopper journey also is important: 76% of shoppers say having multiple fulfillment options influences their purchasing decision, up from 64% in 2017. The findings are similar to the results of the Retail TouchPoints 2018 Last Mile Survey, which reported that 65% of consumers want greater shipment flexibility and 61% want faster deliveries.

“What we’ve been seeing is a shift towards convenience and a shift towards the experience portion of the buying cycle,” said Tushar Patel, CMO at Kibo in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “As a consumer, the importance of the experience with my retailer, the experience I have online and the experience of receiving my items have gone up compared to price being the major factor.”

Usage of buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) services remains strong, and more than 66% of shoppers have chosen this option in the past six months. Avoidance of shipping fees is the most common reason, cited by 86% of shoppers, up from 79% in 2017. Other top reasons include:

Flexible pick-up times (85%, up from 78%);

The ability to touch and try merchandise (77%, up from 68%); and

Saving time at the store (76%, up from 71%).

When Shoppers Have A Product In Mind, They Visit Retailer Sites First

The most popular first stops for customers still researching brands or products are either a search engine (69%) or Amazon (61%). However, when a shopper knows what product and brand they want, 65% prefer going directly to a retailer’s web site. Other common destinations include:

A major retail store (47%);

A branded manufacturer’s web site (31%); and

An online marketplace (27%).

In comparison, when a shopper has a product in mind, but not a brand, their preferred channels are:

A retailer’s web site (66%);

A major retail store (41%);

An online marketplace (26%); and

A branded manufacturer’s web site (25%).

Retailers can use search engine optimization (SEO) to attract consumers to their web sites, but more work is needed to turn those visits into purchases. Approximately 87% of shoppers are influenced by peer reviews, and 91% have relied on reviews to make a purchasing decision in the past six months.

While 74% of shoppers are still somewhat, very or extremely influenced by interactive content that informs them about a product, that total is down from 92% in 2017. However, this doesn’t mean interactive content is becoming less important; rather, it indicates that shoppers need information to be tailored to them to drive engagement.

“When you’re catering to an individual’s intent and behaviors and their preferences, that’s when you’re really going to get the engagement,” said Patel. “What we’ve seen for retailers, and manufacturers as well, is when they’re driving individualized interactive content, that’s when you can get the most bang for your buck.”

Home Page Personalization Influences 63% Of Shoppers

Personalization can have a significant impact on purchasing decisions, but the most effective methods are changing. Approximately 63% of shoppers have been influenced by personalized recommendations on a homepage, down from 88% in 2017, while 50% of shoppers have been influenced by shopping cart recommendations, down from 93%. The influence of personalization is rapidly growing on the product page itself: 64% of consumers are influenced by recommendations there, up from 19% in 2017.

These results imply that many shoppers already know what they want by the time they visit a retailer’s web site and are skipping directly to the purchase. Retailers must make sure the checkout process remains simple even as they add personalization at the tail end of the buying journey: 78% of consumers say a simple, streamlined shopping cart influences their completion of a purchase.

“If you see what’s happening with mobile, see what’s happening with voice-enabled devices, experience is key,” said Patel. “No one buys on Alexa because it’s necessarily a cheaper way of doing it, but because the experience of buying is frictionless. Consumers are going to go towards the most friction-free way to shop whenever they’re given the option.”

Nine West Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and will restructure around its profitable and growing businesses, including One Jeanswear Group, The Jewelry Group, The Kasper Group and Anne Klein. The retailer received a $300 million loan from investors to fund operations during the process.

The bankruptcy process will facilitate the sale of the Nine West and Bandolino footwear and handbag business. Authentic Brands Group will submit an initial bid, and a competitive auction for the business will follow.

Nift, a start-up network designed to help SMBs match neighborhood businesses with local customers by leveraging AI machine learning algorithms, has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding from Spark Capital, Foundry Group and Accomplice.

Although retail employment slipped by 6,400 in March, job numbers were ahead for the year and stronger than a year ago, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.

Industry employment in March 2018 was 30,800 higher than unadjusted March 2017 figures and followed the addition of 42,400 jobs in February. The three-month moving average in March showed an increase of 14,200 jobs, as compared to an increase of 10,600 jobs in the three-month moving average for February.

Instacart raised $350 million in a Series E financing round led by Coatue Management, putting the grocery delivery company’s valuation at $4.35 billion. The round includes $200 million in funding that Instacart previously announced in a February blog post. The company has raised more than $1 billion since its founding in 2012.

Instacart will use the capital to double the size of its team, further expand its footprint across North America and invest in new products and services. The company has partnered with major grocery retailers including Kroger, Albertsons, Publix, Costco, Ahold Delhaize, HEB, Loblaw and Sam’s Club, and recently added BJ’s Wholesale Club and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market as well.

UPDATE: Best Buy confirmed in a statement that a number of customers may have had their payment information compromised during the [24]7.ai payment breach.

Best Buy has not revealed the number of potential customers affected by the breach, indicating “a small fraction of our overall online customer population could have been caught up in this [24]7.ai incident, whether or not they used the chat function.”

Sears confirmed that one of its customer support services experienced a security incident in fall 2017 that may have exposed credit card information of nearly 100,000 Sears customers. The incident also affected Delta Airlines consumers.

[24]7.ai, an AI-powered chatbot platform that provides online support services to Sears and Kmart, notified Sears of the breach in mid-March 2017, the retailer revealed in a blog post. Sears immediately notified the credit card companies to prevent potential fraud, and launched an investigation with federal law enforcement authorities, banking partners and IT security firms.

Kirkland’s President, CEO and Director W. Michael Madden has resigned, effective immediately. Michael B. Cairnes, EVP and COO, was named Acting CEO while the home décor retailer’s board conducts a search for a permanent replacement. Madden will serve as an Employee-Advisor to the board until June 30, 2018.

Cairnes has been with Kirkland’s since November 2016, overseeing marketing, e-Commerce, merchandising, planning and allocation, store and supply chain operations. Cairnes was previously with Michael’s Stores, where he served concurrently as President of Aaron’s Brothers and President of Artistree.